A UN resolution on animal rights would mean that the right idea expanded to include animals. United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948th The time has come to a resolution even if animal rights.

If animals have rights, which states that they are sentient beings who are entitled to live their lives in freedom and in accordance with its nature, it would in effect mean that the animal may no longer be used in any manner contrary to their own interests. They would not intentionally be subjected to suffering or death. This would mean big changes for the animals as compared to today where an animal is only seen as man's possession.

The initiator of the list, appealing for a UN resolution on animal rights is the British animal rights organization Uncaged. Animal Rights supports the initiative by collecting names in Sweden.

In Spain, the Parliament voted in 2008 for a proposal that would give apes rights. In several countries, such as New Zealand and Austria under way similar discussions.

Efforts to influence individual governments have already gone on for several years. The plan is to get as much support as possible for the issue in different countries, before the matter is brought formally into the UN.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Nearly 7 million birds die every year as they migrate from Canada and the U.S. to central and south America at communication towers according to a new study published in PLoS ONE. The 84,000 towers provide TV and radio frequencies and can be as high as 2,000 feet. As Science Daily notes, 250,000 birds were killed in the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the Empire State Building is 1,250 feet high.

The study, entitled “An Estimate of Avian Mortality at Communication Towers in the United States and Canada,” found that taller towers posed the greatest threats to migrating birds. Only 1.6 of the towers — about 1,000 — are taller than 900 feet but they killed 70 percent of the birds, some 4.5 million a year.

Among the birds who are killed are the Common Yellowthroat and the Tennessee Warbler, insect eaters who help to keep forests healthy.

It is not the freestanding towers that are actually the cause of death for millions of birds but the guy wires, the dozens of cables that keep the structures standing. In bad weather, birds fly lower under the cloud cover, which also blocks out navigation cues like stars so that only the blinking or static red lights of the towers are visible. The steady red lights result in more dead birds, says the study’s lead author Travis Longcore, associate professor in the USC Spatial Sciences Institute at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences:

“In the presence of the solid red lights, the birds are unable to get out of their spell. They circle the tower and run into the big cables holding it up.”

The researchers started collecting and analyzing data from field studies starting in 2005. They calculated average bird mortality by looking at the height of towers, the guy wires and the types of lights.

According to Longcore, just changing the continuously burning lights on the 4,500 towers greater than 490 feet tall (about 6 percent of the towers) could reduce mortality by some 45 percent, for some 2.5 million birds.

In addition, the study called on businesses to share towers to lower their number and also to build more freestanding towers, so the need for guy wires is lessened. Consumers also need to realize that our seemingly insatiable demand for strong and clear TV and radio frequencies is contributing to the deaths of millions of birds. Said Longcore,

“This is a tragedy that does not have to be …One of the things this country has been great about is saying we care about not losing species on our watch. With these towers, we are killing birds in an unnatural way. This is senseless.”

After an intense campaign in which Greenpeace claimed that the advance of the Impenetrable bulldozers were destroying the Chaco forest, the organization, along with the support of more than 80,000 people, the government managed to establish important constraints for the development of intensive farming in the region. Today the bulldozers, which violated the Forest Act, are prohibited in the Impenetrable. Thanks to the nearly 80,000 people who signed this petition.

(CLOSED) Thank you for recently signing our petition to support the Animal Defence Society. I am writing to tell you about a recent arrest and how you can help us in the future to investigate, expose and rescue. Yesterday evening, a cruelty caseworker was arrested at his home by Sussex Police on the alleged offense of theft. The offense was relating to an investigation carried out by the Animal Defense Society into breeding rabbits and cats. The caseworker has been bailed to reappear. We support and manage our animal rescue team. Committed activists routinely give aid and rescue to any animal known to be suffering and in pain. The team also document the conditions in which these animals are kept in. Quite frankly, this is all very costly. I am asking you to consider becoming a member for �15. Our members receive a bi-annual newsletter and invitations to our events & workshops. I request that you join now by going to our website and making your first payment. To do so go to: http://bit.ly/IYao69 I hope that you'll join me in creating a kinder world for animals, and we will of course update you whenever we can. For the animals, Jake Knight Founder

Friday, April 27, 2012

I went to the shelter after losing my dog Henri. I stopped when I came to a kennel with two very small puppies alone on the concrete, no blanket, no bed, nothing but each other.

I chose Biscuit, the male, but as I was signing papers, the young couple beside me chose Summer, his sister. Something told me to do it, so I wrote out my name and phone number on a scrap of paper and gave it to the girl. Nothing much was said, awkward moments…

We took Biscuit home and he enjoyed two months of freedom and free reign of our home and four acres of land. He was a great puppy but I was not connecting as much as I had hoped to, still feeling the loss of Henri.

Then the Phone Rang….

This is Biscuit. His sister Summer is pictured above.

One day, exactly two months after Biscuit’s adoption, the girl who took his sister Summer called me. She said it was not fair to Summer for her to keep her as she was gone long hours at work. Would I take her now? Yes, I said, of course. How could I refuse? We had five dogs already including Biscuit, three rat terriers and a Chihuahua mix rescued from a highway. But Summer was family.

She was almost paralyzed with fear when I first saw her. Summer had a fear of cars and always got sick when she had to ride. She looked so sad and miserable. She had been kept in a crate, a small cage, for her first two months. I can’t tell you how much I disagree with crates. They are torture and cruelty beyond reason.

Biscuit was lying under a bearberry bush when I re-introduced Summer. It took just seconds and they were completely happy to see each other. When they were tiny, Biscuit used to drape himself completely over Summer in the concrete kennel to protect her and feel better himself. Now their journey to our farm was complete. They played and romped, but it was clear that Summer had no muscle mass, and was psychologically hurt from her days being confined.

Over time, she learned that no one was going to hurt her, no one was going to force her into a cage, and she started to come into herself. It took over a month, but one day, Summer decided that she would and could “get the ball” much quicker and with greater agility than her heavier brother, and to this day, she is always the one that catches the ball first.

FRANKFURT, GERMANY - Two artists in Berlin drew public condemnation after building a guillotine and taking votes from the public on whether they should use it to slaughter a lamb as a stunt.

A website they set up for the project showed that almost 300,000 votes had been cast by midday Tuesday, with 23 days left before voting ends. More than half of the votes were opposed to killing the lamb.

A video posted on website YouTube on April 18 shows the two students of the Berlin University of the Arts, Iman Rezai and Rouven Materne, building the guillotine and painting it bright pink, yellow and orange.

“The guillotine is the most compact reflection of our society,” Materne said in the video, which also shows one of the men holding the lamb in place beneath the machine’s blade.

The guillotine is designed for decapitation and is most commonly associated with the execution of the French aristocracy during the French Revolution in the 18th century.

The YouTube video drew almost 150 comments, many of which expressed outrage over the plan. German mass-circulation daily Bild called the project “twisted”.

“There were people who wanted to forbid us to do this. There were people who celebrated the idea from day one. And there were some people who were afraid of us,” Materne said in the video.

The University of the Arts, where Rezai and Materne study under Swiss-Japanese artist Leiko Ikemura, sought to distance itself from the project, saying it was not part of the two men’s university-related work.

A spokeswoman for the university also said the two artists had assured the school that their guillotine project was intended as an “artistic provocation” and that they had no plans to kill the lamb.

They told me the big black Lab's name was Reggie, as I looked at him lying in his pen. The shelter was clean, no-kill, and the people really friendly. I'd only been in the area for six months, but everywhere I went in the small college town, people were welcoming and open. Everyone waves when you pass them on the street.

But something was still missing as I attempted to settle in to my new life here, and I thought a dog couldn't hurt. Give me someone to talk to. And I had just seen Reggie's advertisement on the local news. The shelter said they had received numerous calls right after, but they said the people who had come down to see him just didn't look like "Lab people," whatever that meant. They must've thought I did.

But at first, I thought the shelter had misjudged me in giving me Reggie and his things, which consisted of a dog pad, bag of toys almost all of which were brand new tennis balls, his dishes and a sealed letter from his previous owner.

See, Reggie and I didn't really hit it off when we got home. We struggled for two weeks (which is how long the shelter told me to give him to adjust to his new home). Maybe it was the fact that I was trying to adjust, too.Maybe we were too much alike.

I saw the sealed envelope. I had completely forgotten about that. "Okay, Reggie," I said out loud, "let's see if your previous owner has any advice."____________ _________ _________ _________

To Whomever Gets My Dog:

Well, I can't say that I'm happy you're reading this, a letter I told the shelter could only be opened by Reggie's new owner. I'm not even happy writing it. He knew something was different.

So let me tell you about my Lab in the hopes that it will help you bond with him and he with you.

First, he loves tennis balls. The more the merrier. Sometimes I think he's part squirrel, the way he hoards them. He usually always has two in his mouth, and he tries to get a third in there. Hasn't done it yet. Doesn'tmatter where you throw them, he'll bound after them, so be careful. Don't do it by any roads.

He knows hand signals, too: He knows "ball" and "food" and "bone" and "treat" like nobody's business.

Feeding schedule: twice a day, regular store-bought stuff; the shelter has the brand.

He's up on his shots. Be forewarned: Reggie hates the vet. Good luck getting him in the car. I don't know how he knows when it's time to go to the vet, but he knows.

Finally, give him some time. It's only been Reggie and me for his whole life. He's gone everywhere with me, so please include him on your daily car rides if you can. He sits well in the backseat, and he doesn't bark or complain. He just loves to be around people, and me most especially.

And that's why I need to share one more bit of info with you...His name's not Reggie. He's a smart dog, he'll get used to it and will respond to it, of that I have no doubt. But I just couldn't bear to give them his real name. But if someone is reading this ... well it means that his new owner should know his real name. His real name is "Tank." Because, that is what I drive.

I told the shelter that they couldn't make "Reggie" available for adoption until they received word from my company commander. You see, my parents are gone, I have no siblings, no one I could've left Tank with .. and it was my only real request of the Army upon my deployment to Iraq, that they make one phone call to the shelter ... in the "event" ... to tell them that Tank could be put up for adoption. Luckily, my CO is a dog-guy, too, and he knew where my platoon was headed. He said he'd do it personally. And if you're reading this, then he made good on his word.

Tank has been my family for the last six years, almost as long as the Army has been my family. And now I hope and pray that you make him part of your family, too, and that he will adjust and come to love you the same way heloved me.

If I have to give up Tank to keep those terrible people from coming to the US I am glad to have done so. He is my example of service and of love. I hope I honored him by my service to my country and comrades.

All right, that's enough. I deploy this evening and have to drop this letter off at the shelter. Maybe I'll peek in on him and see if he finally got that third tennis ball in his mouth.

Good luck with Tank. Give him a good home, and give him an extra kiss goodnight - every night - from me.

Thank you,

Paul Mallory____________ _________ _________ _______

I folded the letter and slipped it back in the envelope. Sure, I had heard of Paul Mallory, everyone in town knew him, even new people like me. Local kid, killed in Iraq a few months ago and posthumously earning the SilverStar when he gave his life to save three buddies. Flags had been at half-mast all summer.

I leaned forward in my chair and rested my elbows on my knees, staring at the dog.

"Hey, Tank," I said quietly.

The dog's head whipped up, his ears cocked and his eyes bright.

"C'mere boy."

He was instantly on his feet, his nails clicking on the hardwood floor. He sat in front of me, his head tilted, searching for the name he hadn't heard in months. "Tank," I whispered.

His tail swished.

I kept whispering his name, over and over, and each time, his ears lowered, his eyes softened, and his posture relaxed as a wave of contentment just seemed to flood him. I stroked his ears, rubbed his shoulders, buried myface into his scruff and hugged him.

"It's me now, Tank, just you and me. Your old pal gave you to me." Tank reached up and licked my cheek.

"So whatdaya say we play some ball?" His ears perked again.

"Yeah? Ball? You like that? Ball?"

Tank tore from my hands and disappeared into the next room. And when he came back, he had three tennis balls in his mouth.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

This is a male baby chick, in his last moment on earth. Below him is a giant grinder into which he will fall alive because he hatched male, and is therefore useless to the egg industry. His fate is shared by 200 million baby male chicks every year. He lived only for a moment, but he wasn't trash. He was someone.

Infant clinging to dead mother after witnessing her brutal death!!!!
Orangutans share 97% of our genetics (DNA) and have the intelligence of a 5-to-6 year old human child. Despite this amazing intelligence and similarity to humans, approximately 12 orangutans are killed each day to make way for palm oil plantations.
These gentle, self-aware beings are killed in the most inhumane ways. On a weekly basis, rescue teams find mangled bodies of murdered orangutans in logging sights that have been hacked with machetes, run over by machinery, buried alive and even doused in petrol and set alight.
Mother orangutans have their babies taken from them, crammed into small crates and sold as pets. The mother orangutan is then either killed, or captured and taken to an Indonesian brothel; where she will be used as a prostitute and raped repeatedly each day.
The species is estimated to be extinct in the wild within 10 years if these disgusting acts of genocide continue.

Ignorance Kills. Spread the word!!!!

RHINO HORN HAS NO MEDICINAL BENEFITS!!!
This horrifying picture says it all.
Hassan was the name of this white rhino bull!!

He was shot multiple times by AK47's. The poachers responsible are ruthless and dangerous men who care for little other than the money they will recieve for their part in this horrific incident. But are they really the ones to blame?
Certainly they are immoral and greedy men who care little for the pain of the animals or the damage to the country's wildlife heritage. Nevertheless they would have no reason to do what they do were it not for the stubborn ignorance of those who use the horn for what they believe are medicinal purposes.
As it is a well established fact that rhino horn does not have any medicinal purposes at all these people are putting themselves or whoever they are treating at risk as well as providing the reason for the senseless and bloody massacre of one of Africa's most iconic animals. Rhino's are critically endangered for no reason other than the archaic and mistaken beliefs of some misguided people on the other side of the world. If that is not tragic then what is?
Perhaps if enough people say it often enough eventually the ripples will reach the areas where they may make a difference. Tell everyone you can think of to tell everyone they can think of!

This amazing picture shows a large number of bags stacked and sealed. All but one of which shows the head of a dog unable to release the rest of his body from the bag. Packages are filled with dogs and cats ready to be placed alive in a crematorium. The savage massacre is taking place in Lysychansk (Ukraine), in order to rid the city of their presence during the European Football Championship in 2012.

The owner this golden retriever is visually disabled. He trained his dog into a guide dog. Due to no professional guide dog certificate, the dog will be sent away. The man will then lose his “eyes” again. The photo from: HLJTV.com

The dog owner in the photo was complaining to the reporter that he cannot not give up his beloved dog. The photo from: HLJTV.com

In China, Harbin Province has recently proclaimed a policy that raising large dogs are prohibited including the breeds of Golden Retriever, Chow Chow, Labrador and others.

Dogs should be dealt by raisers by October 31, 2012, or they will be fined for 10,000 to 20,000 RMB. After the dogs are confiscated, there should be 1,000 RMB per day for management fee according to an article published in the Chinese news.

The new policy prohibits the keeping of the following breeds in Harbin:

The policy says every household can only keep one dog. Big and fierce dogs are prohibited (guide dogs for the blind and handicapped peple are excluded.). The dogs which are over 50 cm tall and 70 cm long are prohibited as well.

Citizens should take their dogs to the local police agencies for raising registration. The policy agencies should help put micro chips into registered dogs as well as give them certificates and dog tags. The guide dogs kept by organizations can only be sent to the residents. The residents cannot register their dogs under any companies. Every citizen can only keep one dog. The policy regulates the police agencies to be in charge of keeping and dealing the spare and stray dogs. The police in Harbin is empowered to capture and kill any big dogs. All the issues about Harbin dogs are dealt directly by the police instead of animal experts or animal protecting organizations. More than 80% of the residents are against the policy. It’s totally disrespect for the residents as well as ignorance of animal rights.

The policy also says the shelters will be built for keeping the dogs, and the dog owners will be charged 1000 RMB per day for keeping their pets. It’s ridiculous to charge the dog owners. The government will build shelters for the dogs, but they will only keep them for 30 day. If no one adapts the dogs in 30 days, the dogs will be killed. The problem is big dogs prohibition and 30-day adaptation exist at the same time. It’s contradictory. Furthermore, the dog owners should pay for dog keeping. Harbin government is a poor organization. It’s hard to imagine how terrible the shelters will be. People definitely don’t have spare money to pay the extra fee. They are forced to send away or kill their dogs. More people sell their dogs to the dog meat dealers. So far, numerous big dogs have lost their lives due to the policy. A few people from other districts of China said that they are willing to take care of some dogs, but it still cannot solve the problem.

807 brave dogs who served on the front lines with British soldiers have paid the ultimate price for their service.

The scandal was revealed after government officials confirmed the figures in response to Freedom of Information requests from the Daily Mirror. Saying that many of the dogs are too fierce to be retrained as pets, the UK government has been quietly killing them off in droves. Ironically, the dogs survived the dangers of war only to die from the prick of a vet’s needle, and dog lovers worldwide are mourning their loss while demanding answers.

Of the 807 dogs killed in the past decade, the majority were put down after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Defense said twenty canines were euthanized in 2002: that figure rose to 89 in 2003 when the Second Gulf War began. 95 dogs were killed in 2006, but the worst year for British war dogs was 2009, when 125 of them were put down.

Labour MP Kerry McCarthy called the practice a tragedy. “This is shocking. It seems a great shame that animals are destroyed in this way. We need to make sure that every effort is made to find them new homes.”

The Ministry of Defense claims that more recent euthanizations were prompted by behavioral issues or old age, and that sniffer dogs do typically retire with their handlers. But in a recent statement, a government spokesperson admitted that retraining is considered ineffective for many dogs, who are often ‘too dangerous’ be rehomed.

The Dogs Trust, one of the largest and most respected British animal welfare organizations, has issued a strong statement against the ‘premature euthanasia’ of working dogs when retired, and said that every effort to rehome the dogs should be made before taking their lives.

The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) voted to comprehensively reform industrial fishing and protect river herring and American shad at sea.

On June 20, the NEFMC voted to recommend 100 percent at-sea observer coverage on industrial trawlers, a plan to weigh all catch brought to shore and measures to require sampling bycatch before it is discarded at sea. Prior to these votes, there had been no protections for river herring, fish that are critically important to the overall health of the ocean's ecosystem. Read more >>